US military Osprey aircraft with 8 aboard crashes into the sea off southern Japan

US military Osprey aircraft with 8 aboard crashes into the sea off southern Japan

A U.S. military Osprey aircraft carrying eight people has crashed into the sea off southern Japan, and the Japanese coast guard is heading to the site for search and rescue operations

ByThe Associated Press

November 29, 2023, 2:21 AM

TOKYO — A U.S. military Osprey aircraft carrying eight people crashed Wednesday into the sea off southern Japan, and the Japanese coast guard is heading to the site for search and rescue operations, officials said.

Details about what happened to the Osprey and to the people on board were not immediately known, coast guard spokesperson Kazuo Ogawa said.

The coast guard received an emergency call from a fishing boat near the crash site off Yakushima, an island south of Kagoshima on the southern main island of Kyushu, he said.

It was not immediately clear which U.S. base the Osprey belonged to, but it was believed to be heading from Iwakuni to Okinawa.

The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but during flight can rotate its propellers forward and cruise much faster like an airplane. Versions of the aircraft are flown by the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.

A U.S. Marine Corps Osprey aircraft with 23 Marines aboard crashed on a north Australian island in August, killing at least three and critically injuring at least five during a multinational training exercise.

There have been at least five fatal crashes of Marine Ospreys since 2012, causing a total of at least 19 deaths.